Music, Sticks, Cans and Kittens

I was seriously questioning my parenting skills yesterday. I was seriously questioning my decision to get cable. I thought it could be a nice little addition to our household, something to round out our busy lives in controlled doses of educational programming. But really, it's one more thing to power struggle over with my kids. I am sick of the arguing and whining, and worst of all, the glassy-eyed stares of my little media junkies. If there was a parrot in the house, this is what it would have learned to shriek by now, "Turn it OFF!!"

I had banned video games from this household, but recently let my kids buy a Wii with their own money. The Wii is pretty cool, at least it involves moving around and there are no shooting games with it. But Evan had borrowed a controller and a Mario Kart game and we've been fighting over that, too. The game is fine, but when it's time to switch it off, you'd think that I'd told Luka it was time to cut off a limb. The crying, the carrying on. The fury.

It is ridiculous.

As usual, I was trying to get some cleaning done yesterday and trying to get my kids involved with that. Evan will help, but he typically does things half-assed and has to be told each individual task. You can't just say, "clean the living room". Never mind that there is visible litter that can be thrown in the trash. Speaking of trash, it's Evan's job to take the recycling and garbage out and the empty cans back in. I typically find the garbage can and recycling bin IN THE MIDDLE OF OUR BACKYARD. Why? Why not take it all the way to the garage? He must get halfway back there, and think that it would just be too thorough to keep going.

Luka resists every little thing, and I'm constantly issuing threats. Yesterday there was packaging from a cheese snack on our coffee table and I told him to throw it away. He refused. "That's not mine, that's Solstice's". Give me a break. I have to expend way too much energy to get these kids to do stuff. That's the problem with our cushy modern American society. Natural selection would have eliminated this gene pool years ago if it were up to hunting and gathering to keep us going.

There are times I just need a break from these kids. Just get out of my way, let me clean. I fantasize about stringing them up a pole for awhile, like those bear poles that are out in the forests where people camp so that they can suspend their food out of the way of bears. I would do it humanely, of course. They would have a nice comfortable jacket that would would hold the line, and it would be worthwhile because I would give them some reading to do. Maybe some Jane Austen, and maybe they'll grow up and put a bumper sticker on their car that says "I'd rather be strung up on a bear pole, reading Jane Austen"

After the stressful morning, we had Luka's soccer game and things started looking up. The kids were excited about going out to Dexter to see a barn show featuring Chris Buhalis and the Hummingbirds. Actually, they weren't so excited about the show, but they love playing out on the wooded property of the folks that own the barn. So Shannon and I took the kids out there. I love seeing shows there, I had seen Uncle Earl play there before. The sound quality is great, and I love the down-hominess of the barn. Toddlers wandering around, each matched with a dog staring them down waiting for them to drop food. One dog would meander around on stage during the show and then plop itself down. There were lots of people I know, but don't see very often.

Chris sounded great, he played with Dave Keeny on dobro and Dave Sharp on stand up bass. I particularly liked the song Whiskey Six which apparently will be on his next CD. The Hummingbirds played with John Latini on bass, Jim Latini on drums and a pedal steel guitar player that I don't know, but Shannon was familiar with. A fiddle player was up there for a few songs but I didn't catch her name. I bought the new EP by the Hummingbirds, so now there will be some new Ypsilanti music for the IPod.

My boys occupied themselves outside for most of the night, running around with sticks, until the last hour or so when Evan cozied up with a kitten and listened to the music. Luka knew a boy from school, and they entertained themselved by kicking a can around outside under some lanterns strung around the trees.

An interesting day, starting with some high tech frustrations and ending with good relaxing times with music, sticks, cans and kittens.

I don't think cable is going to last very long around here.

I Have to Rave

I signed up for a membership at Washtenaw Community College's new Health and Fitness Center a couple weeks ago, and I finally went today to swim after I dropped the kids off to school. The place is fabulous! I was hooked in because I love to swim, but I usually don't swim indoors. Indoor pools usually seem so clammy, and I feel crispy just thinking about winter chlorine skin immersion. The lap pool that they have, however, is surrounded by windows and filled with natural light. I had heard that they don't put chlorine in the pool at all. The lifeguard there today said they may put in some but it's mostly salt. I could tell, too, by the difference in buoyancy. They played music in there, too, which always helps to get me going.

The place is like a spa. It's all new, and environmentally friendly. The toilets have two different flush modes, one for Number One and one for Number Two. The bathrooms have saunas and whirlpools. In the locker room they have something called a Suit-O-Matic, where you put your wet bathing suit in and press down on the lid, and the machine spins it dry. As an Amish wannabe, I was like, GOLLY! I love it when appliances have "O-Matic" in their name. It couldn't be better unless they detailed my car while I was in there.

They supply shampoo, conditioner, soap, hair dryers, towels, deodorant, hairspray, mouthwash, q-tips, all kinds of crap. And that is the deal that will tip me over to actually going on a regular basis because I hate packing all that stuff. It's like camping, I want to be there but I abhor getting all the stuff ready. It's because I'm lazy. I guess I wouldn't really make a good Amish person after all.

Ypsitucky Kernels

Last night I met Shannon at the Corner Brewery to throw down on some Sacred Cow IPAs. We've been talking about meeting for a beer for awhile, and finally it worked out. Greg was also there and he bellied up to the bar with us, disappearing periodically to have a smoke outside after being reminded that he couldn't light up inside, which he kept doing. So, I got to know these folks a little better, the way that one does over fermented beverages, that I'd really only known before as acquaintances.

I brought with me a big honkin' tomato from my garden for Shannon. As the tomato beautifully squatted red before us, it served as a focal point for some interesting discussion about food preservation methods and the undigestibility of corn.

Nostalgiac '70s music was playing last night, so I must have said "I love this song" at least five times, but I only said "I wish I could smell gas right now" only once. I can't remember exactly why, maybe it was because the corn discussion led to talking about ethanol exhaust. That had to have been it. I love the smell of gas and garages.

Anyway, the beer and nostalgia led to a flurry of Itunes buying when I got home. This is what I bought:

The singles Killer Queen and You're My Best Friend by Queen, Siren by Roxy Music, Goats Head Soup by Rolling Stones, I deliberated over buying Tommy by the Who, but I thought I might only listen to We're Not Going to Take It so I'm waiting on that one, and The Gospel Spirit: Loretta Lynn. I'm an atheist who loves old country gospel, go figure.

One of the songs that played last night was one that I always liked, but I have no idea who sings it or the name. Can anyone help me here? It goes like "Sign, sign, everywhere a sign...do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?"

Revelations

from The Prophet by Khalil Gibran Khalil

Then a woman said, Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow
And he answered:
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter
rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being,
the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup
that was burned in the potter's oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit
the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart
and you shall find it is only that which has given you
sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart,
and you shall see that in
truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, "Joy is greater than sorrow,"
and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater."
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits alone with you
at your board,
remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between
your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at
standstill and balanced.
When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh
its gold and silver, needs
must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

Crazy

It's been quite the week so far. The kids started school yesterday, and thankfully they seem happy with their teachers. L says he want to do two years of second grade, he likes his teacher so much. I also started classes. I have Microbiology on Mondays and Wednesdays, Micro Lab on Thursdays, and Pathophysiology on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Interesting subjects, but I will have to do a shitload of studying in order to do well.

I'm trying to get into my groove. I'm up at 6 to have time for shower and make coffee before making sure E gets up. He's off at 7. Get L up with plenty of time to argue about whatever we're going to argue about that morning. Today it was shoes, but it will be a different topic tomorrow.

Get them off to school, then come back, clean the kitchen, do laundry, get some reading done for class. Maybe make some food for dinner so it's ready right after my class. Yesterday, I invited Andre and his kids over to help plow through some of my produce from Box Elder Acres. I made an eggplant pasta dish that I thought was pretty good but it was looked on with suspicion by everyone under thirty. Nobody gagged, though, so I count that as success.

I got an estimate to get trees trimmed away from my house. I'm getting a half-bathroom put in my basement, and that should be done over the weekend. It should be cool, too, Chris is going to put in some slate tile and knotty pine walls. I also ordered three double-hung windows, and in a few weeks Chris is going to replace my front picture window with the casement windows on the sides, that crank out and which I discovered funnel all the noises I make into the neighborhood. Screaming at the kids, singing along with my records. I'm sure it's been entertaining over the years.

Chris has been working with these two other men, Barry J Fixall and his son, Barry. The Barrys have been doing the plumbing and gas line work in the basement. Barry J Fixall really does fixall. He's been finding different things that need work, like my screen door, and he asks if I mind if he fixes them. I love it. I guess L told Barry the son that "Usually my mom's friends don't charge her for doing work, but I guess you guys have been doing a lot."

I got cable this week. I've never, as an adult, had cable. I'm not sure I like it. Of course, the kids are giddy over it and it has come to good use as a babysitter when I need to run out for a minute. My kids are obsessed with screens, unfortunately. They will watch ANYTHING. They'd be the kids standing side by side in Bed, Bath, and Beyond, mouths agape, watching an Orange-Glo infomercial video playing in the aisle. Personally, I'm overwhelmed by the sheer volume of choices and the preponderance of absolute crap that constitutes television programming. I checked it out a little bit the second day we had it, and it was too much, it made me feel like someone was gripping me by the arms and was shaking me, my head banging around my shoulders. It's depressing that there are enough people to watch some of those shows to justify putting them on the air. I'm just going to find out which shows are good by polling my friends, and ignore everything else. I'm not television savvy, that is for sure.

Today is the 130th anniversary of the death of the Lakota warrior Crazy Horse, born 1840 - died September 6, 1877.

He would have hated cable.

This is My Life

Ahh...

The kids are off to their first day of school.

I'm decompressing.

I'm starting this blog after taking down my MySpace page. I found that there were things going on with me that I would write about, but I wasn't comfortable doing so in that forum. I used it as more of a social networking kind of thing, a public facade, a diversion when I was looking for an escape. Now, as a single mom taking nursing classes, I need to focus and remove the distractions. I guess this blog is also a bit of a distraction, but I look at it as keeping my right brain going, whatwith all the left brain stuff going on as I take Microbiology and Pathophysiology this semester, plus try to keep this house running in smooth order.

More to come.